XIX
The pink dressing-gown which Pinnie had engaged to make for Rose Muniment became, in Lomax Place, a conspicuous object, supplying poor Amanda with a constant theme for reference to one of the great occasions of her life—her visit to Belgrave Square with Lady Aurora, after their meeting at Rosy's bedside. She described this episode vividly to her companion, repeating a thousand times that her ladyship's affability was beyond anything she could have expected. The grandeur of the house in Belgrave Square figured in her recital as something oppressive and fabulous, tempered though it had been by shrouds of brown holland and the nudity of staircases and saloons of which the trappings had been put away. 'If it's so noble when they're out of town, what can it be when they are all there together and everything is out?' she inquired suggestively; and she permitted herself to be restrictive only on two points, one of which was the state of Lady Aurora's gloves and bonnet-strings. If she had not been afraid to appear to notice the disrepair of these objects, she would have been so happy to offer to do any little mending. 'If she would only come to me every week or two, I would keep up her rank for her,' said Pinnie, with visions of a needle that positively flashed in the disinterested service of the aristocracy. She added that her
